Clock generator with duty cycle control and method

ABSTRACT

A clock generator circuit for producing a clock output having a controlled duty cycle is disclosed. A bi-stable circuit provides the clock output which is switchable to a first state in response to an edge of the input clock signal and to a second state in response to a feedback signal. A duty cycle detection circuit is configured to source a current to a node and to sink a current from the node depending upon the output clock state. A capacitor is connected to receive a duty cycle current relating to the current at the node, with a comparator circuit being configured to sense a voltage on the capacitor and to produce the feedback signal when the voltage is at a selected level.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to clock generation circuitry and, in particular, the clock generation which includes duty cycle control.

2. Description of Related Art

There are many applications for clock generation circuitry. In some instances, the clock produced by such circuitry must have a very precise duty cycle. The usual definition of duty cycle is the ratio of the clock high period to the total clock period in terms of percentage. One problem frequently encountered in oscillator and clock generator design is the difficulty in obtaining a symmetrical duty cycle of 50%, which is clock having equal high and low periods. This is particularly true when an odd integer divider is involved. Various circuits and methods have been proposed to address these issues. As will be seen, many of the solutions may provide acceptable performance in some circumstances but are not able to accommodate the precision and wide dynamic rage required in certain applications such as clock drivers used for switching DC to DC converters used in modern integrated power management systems.

Generally, previous designs for duty cycle control utilize a digital delay line approach or an analog delay line approach. Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a simplified diagram of an exemplary prior art clock generator circuit utilizing a digital delay line which is configured to produce a nominal 50% duty cycle which can be varied in a somewhat controlled manner. FIG. 2 is a related timing diagram. Further details of the circuit are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,822,497, the contents of which are fully incorporated herein by reference. Clock Fin shown in FIG. 2 is provided by an oscillator or other clock generator 20. It can be seen from waveform 28A that the duty cycle of Fin is substantially less than 50%.

Clock Fin and a delayed version DFin (waveform 28B) are coupled to the S and R inputs of a latch 24. The output clock Fout having the controlled duty cycle is produced as the Q output of latch 24. A current controlled delay circuit 22 provides a delay D to produce DFin. In order to provide a nominal 50% duty cycle, delay D has a duration equal to one-half the period of clock Fin. Delay circuit 22 typically includes one or more CMOS gates, having a controllable power supply current which alters the propagation delay through the gates. These delay gates may be followed by R and C elements. In this case, the value of delay D can be altered over a given range by controlling the current through line 32 connected to the power source for the delay gates. The rising edge 34A of clock Fin triggers a one shot within latch 24 to produce a narrow pulse that will set the latch output Q to a high state. The rising edge 34B of delay clock DFin also triggers a one shot within latch 24 which resets the latch causing Fout to switch back to a low state.

A delay setting circuit 30 produces a current on line 32 for setting the duty cycle of Fout. In addition, a duty cycle converter 26 provides a fed back correction current on line 32 to maintain the duty cycle at the desired point. Circuit 26 typically includes a pair of equal current sources, with a first current source charging a capacitor when Fout is in a first state and with the second current source discharging the capacitor when Fout is in a second state, with the voltage on the capacitor representing the duty cycle. Converter 26 produces a correction current on line 32 from the duty cycle voltage on the capacitor which is also indicative of the sensed duty cycle. This correction current in combination with the primary current provided by the current produced by circuit 30 operates to maintain Fout at the desired duty cycle.

FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate a further approach to producing a clock having a precise duty cycle. Generally, an analog pulse reshaping monostable multivibrator scheme is employed. Further details of this approach are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 7,123,179, the contents of which are fully incorporated herein by reference. An oscillator circuit 36 produces a clock Fin having a duty cycle in this example of significantly less than 50% (FIG. 4). The rising edge of Fin triggers a one shot 38 that produces a relatively narrow pulse that operates to momentarily turn ON a transistor 40 so as to discharge a capacitor C1. When the pulse terminates, transistor 40 is turned OFF so that a current source 42 can charge capacitor C1 thereby producing a ramp voltage Ramp at the positive input of a comparator 44. The other input to comparator 44 is a voltage Vref to be described.

Comparator 44 produces the clock output Fout. A duty cycle to voltage converter circuit 46 splits Fout into two channels 48A and 48B. The input of channel 48A has an exclusive OR circuit (a high output is produced when the inputs differ), with one input for receiving Fout and the other input connected to a logic “0”. The result is Fout+ shown in FIG. 4 which is in phase with Fout. The input of channel 48B also has an exclusive OR circuit with one input for receiving Fout and the other input connected to a logic “1”. The result is Fout− shown in FIG. 4 which is out of phase with respect to Fout and Fout+. Circuit 48A includes an RC circuit which operates to integrate Fout− to provide a voltage Vavg1 at node 50A indicative of the duration of the high state of Fout−. Similarly, circuit 48B includes an RC circuit which operates to integrate Fout+ to produce a voltage Vavg2 at node 50B indicative of the high state of Fout+.

An error amplifier 52 provides an output Vref indicative of the difference between Vavg1 and Vavg2 which is filtered by a capacitor C2. Voltage Vref is also indicative of the duty cycle of Fout. If Vavg1 and Vavg2 are equal, the duty cycle is 50%. An offset circuit 52 can be used in one of the channels (Fout+ in this case) to provide an adjustable offset for target duty cycles other than 50%. Comparator 44 changes state when voltage Ramp has increased to Vref, thereby producing a falling edge on Fout. Feedback of voltage Vref tends to maintain Fout at the desired duty cycle.

The above described exemplary approaches for providing an output clock having a controlled duty cycle are adequate under many operating conditions. However, shortcomings exist limiting their use in certain high performance applications. As will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following Detailed Description of the Invention, the present invention addresses many of those shortcomings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a prior art clock generator with duty cycle control.

FIG. 2 is a timing diagram illustrating operation of the FIG. 1 clock generator.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of another prior art clock generator with duty cycle control.

FIG. 4 is a timing diagram illustrating operation of the FIG. 3 clock generator.

FIG. 5 is circuit diagram of a clock generator circuit in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a timing diagram illustrating operation of the FIG. 5 clock generator.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring again to the drawing, the previously described clock generation circuitry of FIG. 1 provides acceptable performance for many applications. However, current clock accuracy requirements require duty cycle control over a ±50% dynamic range for frequencies ranging from 250 KHz to 6 MHz which translates to a delay circuit with an operable span from ±1 μs to ±42 ns. It is not practical or cost effective to provide this kind of performance using the approach of FIG. 1, including the delay circuit 22. In addition, the duty cycle to current converter 26 tends to be sensitive to variations in power supply and the various RC elements used in the circuit.

Similarly, although the previously described clock generator circuit of FIG. 3 provides a relatively wide range of duty cycles, there are shortcomings. Since a comparator 44 is used directly as a pulse shaper, the slow rising edge of voltage Ramp at the input requires that the comparator have a moderate degree of hysteresis to suppress multiple pulses due to noise. This poses a limitation on generating a high frequency clock. Further, the FIG. 3 circuit is sensitive to variations in power supply voltage(s) because the rail to rail output of comparator 44 is directly integrated by the RC circuits of elements 48A and 48B. These and other errors attributable to supply voltage changes could be mitigated to some extent using an internal LDO voltage regulator, but this adds complexity. Further, a voltage regulator has a limited bandwidth which cannot nullify high frequency noise present on the power supply.

FIG. 5 depicts one embodiment of the present invention which addresses the above-described shortcomings. The clock generator circuit 54 includes an oscillator circuit 56 which produces an input clock Fin as shown in the timing diagram of FIG. 5. A first one shot 58A produces an output pulse in response to the rising edge, with the short pulse width corresponding to the delay provided by an inverter (not designated) in the one shot. The pulse operates to clock a bi-stable circuit. In the present case, the bi-stable circuit a D type flip-flop circuit (flip-flop) 62 by way of an OR gate 60. The output clock Fout is produced at the Q output of flip-flop 62. As is well known, a D type flip-flop transfers the state at the D input to the Q output upon receipt of a clock. A power on resent (POR) initializes flip-flop 62 so that the Q output Fin is a “1”. Since the D input is connected to the Q_(—) output, the D input is a “0” so that the Q output Fout transitions to a low state upon receipt of the clock pulse as shown in the FIG. 5 timing diagram. Eventually, a second one shot 58B will be triggered thereby producing a narrow pulse that again clocks flip-flop 62 by way of gate 60, causing the Q output Fout to transition to a high state.

P type transistor 64 and N type transistor 66 form part of a duty cycle detection circuit, with the respective gates connected in common to the Q_(—) output of flip-flop 62. The respective drain electrodes of the two transistors are connected together, with the source electrode of transistor 64 connected to a current source I1 and with the source electrode of transistor 66 connected to another current source I2, with sources I1 and I2 being equal. Current source I1 and switch 64 are connected intermediate a common node and the upper supply rail (VDD), with current source I2 and switch 66 being connected intermediate the common node and the lower supply rail (ground). Thus, when Q_(—) is high, transistor 66 is ON and transistor 64 is OFF so that current I2 is sunk from line 67. Conversely, with Q_(—) is low, transistor 64 is ON and transistor 66 is OFF so that current I1 is sourced onto line 67. When Fout has a 50% duty cycle, the net current flowing though line 67 over time, sometimes referred to as the duty cycle current, is zero.

A third current source I3 has an output connected to a current summing node 68, with line 67 also being connected to the node. The current one line 67 along with that from source I3 flows through a capacitor C, with the capacitor being charged by the sum of the two currents flowing into node 68. Capacitor C is discharged at the beginning of each cycle when the output of one shot 58A momentarily turns ON a transistor 72. The values of current I1/I2 and I3 along with that of capacitor C are selected such that for a duty cycle near the target duty cycle, the voltage Vcap on node 68 is midway between the power supply rails near the end of each clock cycle. That means that I3 must be substantially larger than I1/I2. A comparator 70 compares the voltage Vcap with a reference voltage Vref, with the comparator 70 output switching to a high state when Vcap has charged up to Vref as shown in the FIG. 6 timing diagram.

When comparator 70 switches to a high state, the rising edge of the output triggers one shot 58B which clocks flip-flop 62 though OR gate 60. Since Q_(—) is high at this point, the D input is low so that output Q and Fout transition back to the high state. The target duty cycle can be varied by changing the value of Vref and/or the value of I3. Should the actual duty cycle increase from the target value for some reason, transistor 64 will be conductive longer than it should be and transistor 66 will be conductive for too short a time. This means that the net current on line 67 will be too large so that capacitor C will charge more quickly to Vref. This increased rate of change of Vcap means that comparator 70 will change state sooner in the cycle. Thus, feedback provided by comparator 70 to one shot 58B will cause output Q and Fout to switch to the high state earlier in the cycle thereby correcting for the duty cycle error. In the event the duty cycle is below the target value for some reason, the net current on line 67 will be too low so that Vcap will take more time to transition up to Vref. Thus, output Q and Fout will switch to the high state later in the cycle thereby compensating for the duty cycle error. Note that for duty cycles that differ substantially from 50% can be accommodated so that the switching voltage for comparator 70 remains within the ideal operating range.

The voltage references and current sources can be accurately generated by central biasing circuitry. The references should have precision parameters which are independent of temperature and supply voltage and can be process trimmed. Further, pulse width shaping using edge triggered logic such as flip-flop 62 performs time domain filtering which eliminates level/noise issues. Comparator 70 can be a very high speed device which utilizes little or no hysteresis thereby increasing the circuit bandwidth. Circuit complexity is reduced since only a single capacitor need be used versus banks of capacitors and resistors. In addition, only a single comparator need be used. This in combination with current mode processing at node 68, as opposed to integrating voltage signals, results shorter transport delays which also allows higher frequency operation.

Thus, an embodiment of the present invention has been disclosed. Although this embodiment have been described in some detail, changes can be made by those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. 

1. A clock generator circuit comprising: an input node for receiving an input clock signal; a bi-stable circuit having a circuit output from which a clock output of the clock generator is derived, with the circuit output being switchable between first and second states, with the bi-stable circuit switching the circuit output between the first state and the second state in a first direction in response to an edge of the input clock signal and switching the circuit output between the first and second states in a second direction, opposite the first direction, in response to a feedback signal; and a duty cycle detection circuit configured to source a first current to a first node when the bi-stable output is in one of the first and second states and configured to sink a second current from the first node when the bi-stable output is in another one of the first and second states, with duty cycle detection circuit further including a first capacitor connected to receive a duty cycle current relating to the current sourced and current sunk at the first node, a first capacitor connected to receive the duty cycle current and a comparator circuit connected to compare a voltage on the first capacitor with a reference voltage, with the feedback signal being responsive to an output of the comparator circuit.
 2. The clock generator circuit of claim 1 wherein the bi-stable circuit is a flip-flop circuit having a clock input and wherein the circuit output is switchable between the first and second states in response to a clocking signal applied to the clock input.
 3. The clock generator circuit of claim 2 wherein the flip-flop circuit is a D type flip-flop having a D input and where the circuit output is flip-flop output is connected back to the D input.
 4. The clock generator circuit of claim 2 further including a first one-shot circuit having an input coupled to the input node, with the first one-shot circuit producing a first clock pulse in response to receipt of the edge of the input clock, with the first clock pulse being coupled to the clock input of the flip-flop circuit and causing the flip-flop output to switch between the first and second states in the first direction.
 5. The clock generator of claim 4 wherein a one-shot circuit is connected to receive the feedback signal so as to produce a second clock pulse which is coupled to the clock input of the flip-flop circuit and causing the flip-flop output to switch between the first and second states in the second direction.
 6. The clock generator of claim 5 wherein the one-shot circuit connected to receive the feedback signal one-shot circuit connected to the input node are separate one-shot circuits having respective one-shot outputs coupled to the clock input of the flip-flop circuit by way of logic circuitry.
 7. The clock generator circuit of claim 1 wherein the duty cycle detection circuit includes a first current source which provides the first current and a second current source that provides the second current, with the first current source being connected intermediate the first node and a first power supply rail and with the second current source being connected intermediate the first node and a second power supply rail.
 8. The clock generator circuit of claim 7 wherein the duty cycle detection circuit further includes a first transistor connected in series with the first current source and a second transistor connected in series with the second current source, with the first and second transistors having common gate electrodes to a drive signal related to the bi-stable circuit output.
 9. The clock generator circuit of claim 8 wherein the duty cycle detection circuit includes a third current source, with the first capacitor is connected to receive the duty cycle current and an offset current from the third current source.
 10. The clock generator circuit of claim 9 wherein the duty cycle detection circuitry further includes voltage conversion circuitry coupled to the first node to produce a duty cycle voltage relating to the current sunk and sourced at the first node and an amplifier circuit configured to convert the duty cycle voltage to an output current, with the duty cycle current being derived from the output current.
 11. A clock generator circuit comprising: an input node for receiving an input clock signal; a bi-stable circuit having a clock input and a circuit output from which a clock output of the clock generator is derived, with the circuit output being switchable between first and second states in response to clocking signals applied to the clock input, with the circuit output switching between the first state and the second state in a first direction in response a first one of the clocking signals derived from an edge of the input clock signal and with the circuit output between the first and second states in a second direction, opposite the first direction, in response to a second one of the clocking signals derived from a feedback signal; and a duty cycle detection circuit including a first current source coupled intermediate a first power supply rail and a first node when the circuit output is in the first state and a second current source coupled intermediate a second power supply rail and the first node when the circuit output is in the second state, a first capacitor connected to receive a duty cycle current relating to current at the first node from the first and second current sources and to receive an offset current provide by a third current source and a comparator circuit connected to compare a voltage on the first capacitor with a reference voltage, with the feedback signal being responsive to an output of the comparator.
 12. The clock generator circuit of claim 11 wherein the duty cycle detection circuit includes a first transistor connected in series with the first current source and a second transistor connected in series with the second current source, with the first transistor being conductive when the circuit output is in the first state and with the second transistor being conductive when the circuit output is in the second state.
 13. The clock generator circuit of claim 12 wherein the duty cycle current is present at the first node, with the first capacitor being connected to the first node together with the third current source.
 14. A method of generating a clock output having a controllable duty cycle, said method comprising: setting a bi-stable circuit output to a first state in response to a first edge of an input clock; setting the bi-stable circuit output to a second state in response to a feedback signal; producing a first current when the circuit output is in the first state; producing a second current when the circuit output is in the second state; producing a duty cycle signal which includes combining the first and second currents; conducting a current through a capacitor relating to the duty cycle signal; and sensing a voltage on the capacitor and producing the feedback signal based upon a sensed capacitor voltage.
 15. The method of claim 14 wherein the conducting a current through a capacitor relating to the duty cycle signal further includes conducting an offset current through the capacitor.
 16. The method of claim 14 wherein the duty cycle signal is a voltage, with the method further including converting the voltage to a duty cycle current which is combined with an offset current.
 17. The method of claim 14 wherein the duty cycle signal is a current. 